


The Otto-Tashiro Game

by JosephWrites



Category: Original Work
Genre: Rituals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22557181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JosephWrites/pseuds/JosephWrites
Kudos: 3





	The Otto-Tashiro Game

Right of the bat, I'm aware of what this seems like. You've probably seen a thousand-and-one 'rituals' on the internet about these people who claim that they've had their greatest wish granted, and that it 'really works', and have the entire phone catalogue of rules that state that you have to perform it on a full moon, but only at the hours where the moon isn't visible to the naked eye, and you need to count the stars EXACTLY.

I can assure you... the following game has no such rules. No trials, no tribulations. Just one, single piece of advice;

*Don't. Lie.*

The Otto-Tashiro game, as it probably sounds, has Japanese roots. a man of reversed name, Tarashio Otto, was a renown psychic, known for having a 99% accurate claim to fame. They were able to locate anything, or predict anything, or make a path to their customer's greatest desire with just a single, solitary question.

'Purei shimasu ka?' which roughly translates to, 'Would you like to play?' in English.

Over the years, however, Tarashio began getting sterile. He would lazily wave off anyone he didn't feel deserved to be in his presence, and would even turn down huge sums of money to avoid having to tell people what he felt was right. Eventually, he ended up turning down the wrong guy- a mafia boss, trying to find the love of his life- and soon he was being thrown into the sea with concrete shoes.

That night, however, Tarashio's body washed up on the beach. The name of his killer was carved into his back. The mafia boss was thrown into jail the next day.

Soon after, rumours of Tarashio Otto, soon shortened to Tashiro Otto and then, Otto-Tashiro, coming back to life were beginning to circulate. If you sat at his grave in the graveyard he was buried in Japan at night, and asked him ' Purei shimasu ka?' then his ghost would arise from the grave and tell you what you wanted to know.

Soon, 'His Grave' became 'A Grave'. 'The Graveyard' became 'A Graveyard'. 'In Japan' became completely obsolete.

So how do you play the 'Otto-Tashiro' game?

Well, the rules are rather... simple. That is in the fact that there's none of them. The setup is also relatively easy- as you can probably assume, the graveyard where Otto-Tashiro doesn't exist anymore, so any graveyard in any country in any part of the world is fine. The only major condition is that it has to be night-time- the dark cover has always drawn in the supernatural.

Sit in front of a grave. It doesn't matter who the grave belongs to- it can belong to no one if you don't wish to sit on the still earth of the dead. As long as the headstone is in a graveyard and the night is above you, you are meeting all the conditions of the Otto-Tashiro game.

And if you are meeting all the conditions, then all you need to ask is a single question.

*'Purei shimasu ka?'*

It doesn't really matter if you get the wording right- if you have done everything correctly, the world around you will seem to spin and rotate as if the planet has left you behind. The stars themselves will seem to blink like Christmas lights and the moon will almost seem to have a question carved into it.

In response to your question, it will have something written there. It will be written in your native language, to make sure that you know its there.

*'What is it you desire?'*

Speak your answer aloud into the air. It can be anything, big or small, with the sole exception that a human being could possibly acquire it- no asking for wings or being able to breathe under water, stuff like that. With a single blink after saying your true desire aloud, you will be cast back into a normal feeling world. Some claim that interacting with this game transports you to a new dimension- others simply state that you are possessed by the spirit of Otto-Tashiro himself.

So, what happens next?

Simply, you won't know until it begins. The Game does not start on your terms; it starts on the universe wanting it to. You won't even realise its begun when it does- it just starts, whether you're ready or not.

What happens in the game? Again, you won't realise unless you're absolutely expecting it, which isn't possible. It may start with a single question on the street, something entirely out of the blue- something like 'Have we met before?' or 'Hey, where do you get your hair done?' Without assuming that the guy or girl is doing this for any reason, you answer.

'No, we haven't', you'll say subconsciously.

'Oh, it's from so-and-so', you'll recommend. You'll move on without ever thinking it was a coincidence.

Oh, but how wrong you are. You see, it's not until the game is over that you'll finally realise what they were doing. It's not until you are snuggling down for a good night's rest that you'll feel that little weaving thread through your brain.

And this will go on a while. Depending on the severity of what you asked for, the game will march along, catching you off guard with the silly little questions. Hell, after the first week, you may have found exactly the path to take and there will still be a beggar or a person handing out pamphlets that will somehow worm their way into a back alley that you tried escaping down because they believed it was the best place to be noticed.

But that's the thing- they're just questions. Questions that, even as you get practically sidelined by them, you can simply say what you need to and head on your way. You mentally prepare yourself for what comes next, ready to give the same answers you did before.

But they're never going to repeat.

It won't take long for that notion to settle into your mind, either. It'll probably be soon after the person who asks 'Do you know how to get to X' that you'll realise that the questions don't repeat at any point.

And soon, you'll find, that the people will begin running out of options. The people you meet will begin with the obvious ones- What's your eye, hair, skin colour- and then it'll descend into the less obvious- When's your birthday, when's your anniversary- before finally, they'll be asking you questions that you yourself don't even know.

'What's your birth stone' is a common one I've heard. 'What's your Great-Grandmother's name' is another.

And that's the next thing- the questions are never trivia. They're never Multiplication, or History, or Regional Dialect. They're always personal- things that you would only be happy sharing about yourself with those you trusted, rather than the people you met on the street.

But then you think to yourself- what if I just... don't answer? What if you stay silent, or try to mime being deaf, or just don't make eye contact at all?

The answer, once again, is simple- You won't know until the end.

Speaking of; you're probably thinking this is no longer worth it. After all, most of you are probably introverts- why would I come to you with this little game? Well, for the same reasons that a pedlar pushes his cart- I'm just moving through. Sharing what I know, deciding what I don't.

I'm just along for the ride, I may as well sit myself somewhere comfortable.

You may have noticed that I'm deflecting at this point, at the most crucial of moments- What happens at the End of the Otto-Tashiro Game? What happens when you inevitably win the game, and it finishes for good?

Well, that's always the hardest part to say, because... you'll never know when the game is over. It can take anywhere from a month to fifteen years or, in the worst case scenario, it may never end for you at all. The only way to tell for absolutely sure how long the game will take is how frequent you're targeted with questions- if its once a week, you are hitting just below the average speed.

All you'll know is that you'll go to sleep the night the game will end and wake up with your desire fulfilled. The desire you yelled into the sky that night. You probably won't even recognise at first- you'll get up, get ready for another day of barraging questions, only to find that you're ten-million dollars richer or that the love of your life was groaning for you to come back to bed.

It'll be dropped on you, just like that. Not a single notion that it was even finished, but... rewarding all the same, no?

... There's still a question on your mind, isn't there? The rather obvious question of my first little hint, the one I eluded to four sentences in.

What happens if you lie to the people who ask you the questions? What happens if you tell them a little white lie, or completely make up a bizarre story just to drive them away?

Nothing. Well, at least... nothing to you.

You see, these people who are asking you questions? They aren't doing it of their free will. They'll immediately get that notion in the back of their mind; this desire to hunt you down and ask you the question that just popped into their mind, like a rabid paparazzi member. And they WILL hunt you down- from the scrappiest of the homeless to the best-dressed of the gentlemen, you will cross their path.

They'll ask their question, you will answer. Tell the truth, and nothing happens. Tell a lie... well, that's when the bad things begin. You see, there was a part of the story I didn't tell about mister Otto-Tashiro, and that was a simple slip of the tongue-

Mr. Tarashio was a short-fused piece of dynamite, and liars were his trigger.

It didn't matter what lie you told him; he would know, just like that, like a flip of the switch. He'd instantly be able to tell when someone was lying to him, about anything, and that... well, that's what weighed on him and his conscious. He'd kick the person out in a fit of rage, shut down his little tent for the day, where he'd fume over the lie he'd been told.

So, what happens to you when you tell a lie? Well, I've already answered that- nothing happens to you. But this person, this innocent soul that you just lied to... well, their fate is sealed like candle-wax on a envelope. It doesn't matter how small or how big the lie was, you have just condemned that man or woman to death, just by telling them something so small.

How does it happen? To tell you the truth, I don't know. I don't know what happens to those people- all I know, is that they never appear again. Their body is located later on, having seemingly died of shock or, in worse cases, having committed suicide. There's only one true way to assume death has come for all of these people, and that is this- the ones who... took their own lives... never seem to have had problems in the past. It's almost as if they're running from something rather than trying to escape their own mind.

Like a feral beast... or perhaps something more?

Once again, I don't have the answers for this. It's a sudden urge to ask a question, followed by the swift regret of having done so for some. And not answering them, well, that's counted as a lie. You must tell the absolute truth- You can leave details if you feel like they don't need to be added, but you cannot. Lie. That is the only thing I ask.

... Why am I telling you this?

Well, like you, I was once... young. Dumb. Wanting a thrill. Wanting to escape into my own personal bubble. I heard of this game and played it, asking for something really small just to see whether or not it would work. The next day, I lied through my teeth to everyone who asked me a question, thinking that as long as I didn't tell the truth, there would be no repercussions.

But then... then I began hearing things. Things about how Mr. such-and-such never came into teach, or how the girl from down the street was apparently reported missing. I never connected the dots, and... within a week, I had racked up an accidental kill streak.

All over a key chain I thought looked really pretty online. It still hangs from my phone, as a reminder of what I did. I've gotten the urge to ask questions to my classmates recently... I think they heard what I did, and wanted to try it themselves.

... I wonder how many of them are reading this now. Hello, friends.

So, I suppose I'm only asking for hope that you don't feel the way I do- please, if you play this game... if you want to get something for free, only to give your personal info for it...

Don't lie.

Because one day... it might be you asking the same of others.


End file.
